Layover Life: Entebbe & Athens

Geez it's been awhile since I've written something...I usually end up taking all the Instagram stories then I don't see the need for a blog post because everything is on there. Might change that up so I have content to post on this sorry page I call a blog. Anyways, so I'm currently on vacation (amazing I know) and I had no set plans then Jim was like "why not just jump on my flights as a passenger?" Since I'm able to book a ticket pretty much 4hrs before it departs (super amazing perk of my job) that became my plan. 

Layover #1 : Entebbe, Uganda

I've yet to do many African flights, most of the flights to that part of the world have been to South Africa which is the same continent just you know different. I did my search on the internet to check if I needed a visa before hand because I like to be overly prepared for everything. I have a need to never leave anything last minute or I panic. Everything must be planned out way in advance or my life is ruined. Just kidding but not really. 

Morning of the flight I'm excited and happy, go to the airport and check in, board the plane and annoy the crew (I knew 5 of them so it was a good annoy) settled in my seat drinking my Baileys on ice and just generally in a happy mood I mean what's not to be happy about. I'm on vacation and get to spend most of it with my other half in different cities. It's bloody amazing. Then a thought crosses my mind..I should double check that I really actually do get visa on arrival...so I google that again. Panic ensues. Some places say you need to apply before hand. My stress levels reach an all time high. I start thinking worse case scenario of being sent back to Dubai as an INAD (someone who just wasn't allowed in the country for some reason or other) getting a meeting with my manager and getting into all kinds of trouble. The female mind is amazing. We can take a small tiny thing and suddenly the world is going to end and we're all gonna die. 

I ask one of the crew to call the flight deck and tell Jim my predicament and Jim as chill as ever just says "nah you'll be fine, just chill with your Baileys" 

He rarely stresses and sometimes I wonder how that's even possible. 

I chill a bit through the rest of the flight and accept my fate. If I get sent back to Dubai no worries I can order pizza and watch crime documentaries while I think over my life choices. We land in Entebbe and yeah I get in with absolutely no problems. I stressed over nothing and life was beautiful again. We got to the resort which was beautiful and I did my usual "check for murderers and pee"routine when we got to the room before passing out on the bed for an hour. Gym then met the crew for dinner, I had Nile Perch grilled to perfection and a boat load or pina coladas. I'm on vacation ok, I'm allowed to indulged in all these drinks. 

Next morning we woke up early to take a nice long walk around the resort before venturing outside for a bit until my feet developed blisters (after 2hrs yo I'm not that weak) 

 

casually teaching Jim how to model. It's a process but we're getting there. 

 

The birds had the modeling down pat but they are some ugly buggers to say the least. At least there was no pooping in heads or attacking.  

 

I'm currently on a plane munching on peanut brittle while I write this post so it's taking some time because if you know me you know how distracting food is. I have to keep making sure I don't irritate Jim by constantly asking him to take selfies with me because I know how it can get annoying😂 That's pretty much the entirety of this layover. Pretty chill and that's just what some layovers should be used for. Back to Dubai for a day then off to Athens for 24hrs. 

Layover #2 : Athens, Greece

This might be a long one. 

Before today I never thought or even wanted to visit Greece. Why? Greece is amazing you may say. Well, to put it bluntly I did not have a great experience when it came to Greeks when I was a child. We won't go into details but if you want to know where and in what situation I grew up google The Family or The Children of God. 

I might write a post directly about that later on but for now let's just leave it at that. I wanted nothing to do with Greece. Don't get me wrong though I know a whole lot of Greek crew, guys and girls who are amazing human beings. The ones I know are the sweetest people you can ever meet but in the back of my mind there was still a fear and association that I couldn't get rid of so when Jim told me he has an Athens trip and asked if I wanted to go along my anxiety just shot up to the high heavens. I said yes though and made the commitment to put myself through exposure therapy because I'm not the kind of person to let fear stop me. I mean for real, I'm horrified of heights but I'm cabin crew like seriously though. Anyways yes the entire night before the flight I stressed to the point I gave myself stress hives. Bloody hell those things are itchy and annoying and ugly and just ew. 

Lucky for me I always have a first aid kit with me with all the meds for stuff that is likely to ail me so I downed some antihistamines and rubbed some cream on to stop shit from getting worse. 

Now Jim used to live and work in Athens back in the day and he loves the place. The way his face lights up whenever he talks about it used to annoy me to the high heavens because well I didn't. I associated what a Greek did to me as a child with the city and that ruined it for me before I ever even went. 

The whole flight I was on the verge of an anxiety attack but managed to keep it under control. When we landed I went through customs with a breeze (thanks Irish passport). Jim was amazing the entire time. He wanted to show me something he loved. I was grumpy at first but I let him do his thing and I gotta tell you that guy has an amazing amount of patience. He did get fed up but I mean that's bound to happen sooner or later. 

 

We walked up towards the Acropolis but by the time we got there it was closed. Not that I was that bothered though, I just saw it as a reason to make me come back to Athens again. 

 

We did get to see some amazing views though and even though the forecast was rain it was actually nice and sunny although one side of the sky was dark and gloomy the other half was beautiful. 

 

We walked for a good few hours and by the time we got down to the old town part (I think that's what it was at least) Jim and I were starving (him more so because he had been doing a Keto fast for 3 days) we were gonna go to this one place he loved but it was closed till summer so we walked around and found a cozy family run restaurant where I pretty much just told him to order everything because other than Greek salad and Greek yogurt I really don't know what food they have. The grandpa at the restaurant was adorable, I felt so spoiled and very well looked after. I still prefer Asian food over anything but it wasn't bad. I'm a big fan of their sweets and desserts though that's for sure. 

It started getting cold at around 9pm so we jumped in a cab and headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep. It was pouring rain the next morning so we decided to workout and have breakfast before wake up call. 

So did I like Athens? For a first time it wasn't horrible. I'm not scared of the place anymore and I don't associate it with bad memories which is what the whole trip was about. I can't say I was head over heels in love with it right off the bat. Actually that never happens to me with cities so there's nothing new there. Will I come back again in the future? Who knows, I actually should go see the islands and stuff since they look pretty and if I get a flight to operate here then yeah I won't swap off it. For now it's back to Dubai for a day then off to Dubin for a weekend! Now I'm excited for that because I get to see my cousin and have a pint of Guinness in Guinness country.

That wasn't actually an ultra long post like I thought it would be😂 

Later Taterz xx